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Video: Death toll rising in Brazil flooding; at least 400 dead

>>>we're back. we mentioned news of an unfolding and devastating
natural disaster
, another one this time deadly floods and mudslides in brazil near rio and the pictures from the scene are at times difficult to watch. at least 400 people have died, and dozens more are missing. tonight, our report from nbc's
mark potter
.

>> reporter: floods in the mountains north of rio left in trapped, including this woman and her dog. from a next door building, rescuers threw a lifeline. holding her pet, the woman jumped in, but was overpowered by the current. by clinging to the rope, she survived, but the dog was sucked away. another
small town
, residents ran into the streets, fearing building collapses. and in this neighborhood, a father is pulled from the rubble. then a cheer breaks outs a his 6-month-old baby is also found, alive. as the death toll climbed into the hundreds, even rescuers were lost. in this town, three firemen were buried by mud as even more heavy rain is predicted. mark

Dozens were still missing after the slides hit at about 3 a.m. Wednesday in the picturesque Serrana region after 10 inches of rain — a month's normal rainfall — fell in 24 hours.

More then 13,500 people were made homeless in the region, the Civil Defense agency said.

Most of the deaths were north of Rio, but at least 18 people also died in flooding in Sao Paulo earlier this week.

More rain, possibly heavy at times, is forecast through the weekend.

Some survivors recounted their ordeal while taking shelter Thursday.

"We were like zombies, covered in mud, in the dark, digging and digging" after the slides hit, said Geisa Carvalho, 19, a resident of Teresopolis where dozens died.

A tremendous rumble awoke Carvalho and her mother Vania Ramos as tons of earth slid down a sheer granite rock face onto their neighborhood.

The power was out, but by lightning flashes they could see a torrent of mud and water rushing just a few feet from their home — and the remnants of their neighbors' houses that were swept far down a hill.

"I don't even have the words to describe what I've seen," said Ramos during a 5-mile hike to the main part of her town in search of food and water. "A lot of our friends are dead or missing. There are people we may never find."

Carvalho and Ramos said they ran out of their home moments after the mudslide and joined neighbors in digging for survivors with bare hands and sticks.

They quickly located a family of four who had died under the rubble of their home — and said another neighbor's 2-month-old baby was washed away in his crib and has yet to be found.

Television footage showed many houses buried in mud as desperate residents and rescue workers searched for survivors.

"It's like an earthquake struck some areas," said Teresopolis Mayor Jorge Mario. "There are three or four neighborhoods that were totally destroyed in rural areas. There are hardly any houses standing there and all the roads and bridges are destroyed."

Dozens also died in the towns of Nova Friburgo, Petropolis, Sumidouro and Sao Jose do Vale do Rio Preto.

"The city is finished," Nova Friburgo resident Carlos Damasio was quoted as saying on the online edition of local newspaper O Globo.

Morgues in the towns were full and bodies covered in blankets were laid out in streets.

President Dilma Rousseff flew by helicopter over the region Thursday. The nation's Health Ministry said it was sending 7 tons of medications to the area, enough to treat 45,000 people for a month, it said.

The death toll was expected to rise as firefighters reached remote valleys and steep mountainsides where neighborhoods were destroyed, Teresopolis's mayor said. About 1,000 people there were left homeless.

"I saw six bodies on my street," said 53-year-old Antonio Venancio, whose house was inundated with mud but still standing. "We just don't know what to do in the face of something so horrible."

'So many disappeared'
"There are so many disappeared — and so many that will probably never be found," said Angela Marina de Carvalho Silva, a resident of Teresopolis who feared she might have lost 15 relatives, including five nieces and nephews.

"There was nothing we could do. It was hell," she said.

Carvalho Silva took refuge in a neighbor's house on high ground with her husband and daughter, and watched the torrential rain carry away cars, tree branches and animals, and rip apart the homes of friends and family.

"It's over. There's nothing. The water came down and swept everything away," said her husband, Sidney Silva.

Television images showed one woman holding a dog in the ruins of her house as powerful floodwaters tore at the remaining walls.

She grabbed a rope thrown by residents from a nearby rooftop and was eventually pulled to safety, but had to drop the dog into the waters to save herself.

About 800 search-and-rescue workers dug for survivors.

In one town, firefighters rescued a 25-year-old man who held his 6-month-old son for 15 hours until they were both pulled out alive. The man's wife and mother-in-law were feared dead.

"I believe the number of dead is much more than was announced so far," Rio state environment secretary Carlos Minc was quoted as saying by Globo television after he flew over the region. "Many people died while they were sleeping."

A car, dragged inside a church by a mudslide, is seen in Nova Friburgo, Brazil on Friday, Jan. 21. Brazil will create a nationwide disaster-prevention and early-warning system following recent floods and landslides that killed more than 750 people in mountain towns north of Rio de Janeiro, government officials said Thursday.
(Felipe Dana / AP)
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A resident comes down a house destroyed by a landslides, in Nova Friburgo on Thursday, Jan. 20.
(Mauricio Lima / AFP - Getty Images)
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A dog from K9 de Creixell, a Spanish organization, searches for landslide victims in a damaged home in Nova Friburgo, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Thursday, Jan. 20. Deaths from last week's mudslides rose to at least 727 and have left thousands homeless.
(Felipe Dana / AP)
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A girl receives a container of potable water from a soldier in the landslide-affected Alto Floresta neighborhood in Nova Friburgo, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, on Wednesday, Jan. 19.
(Felipe Dana / AP)
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Red Cross volunteers stack donated clothes at a relief center in Teresopolis, state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Wednesday, Jan 19. Brazilian officials began moving thousands of people out of at-risk areas near Rio in a flooding disaster that has already left at least 727 people dead. Ten teams of civil defense and environment officials were evacuating residents in outlying areas of Nova Friburgo, the hardest-hit town, said their commander, Colonel Roberto Robadey.
(Vanderlei Almeida / AFP - Getty Images)
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Brazilian National Force rescue workers carry the body of a boy on the scene of a recent landslide, where seven people were found buried among debris in the neighbourhood of Jardilandia, in Nova Friburgo, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, on Jan. 19.
(Mauricio Lima / AFP - Getty Images)
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Residents of Sumidouro, one of the mudslide-hit towns north of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, unload supplies from a navy helicopter on Tuesday, Jan. 18. Brazil has sent around 700 troops to help areas desperate for aid.
(Felipe Dana / AP)
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A woman cries while holding her newborn baby after being rescued by helicopter from an isolated area near Petropolis on Monday.
(Vanderlei Almeida / AFP - Getty Images)
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A house remains standing on Monday even though the rest of the hillside in a rural area north of Rio de Janeiro collapsed.
(Bruno Domingos / Reuters)
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Paulo Rodrigues da Silva, left, reacts as he embraces a relative he found at a shelter for people displaced by landslides in Nova Friburgo, Brazil, Jan. 16.
(Felipe Dana / AP)
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Rescue workers climb on a helicopter after searching for survivors and victims in an area affected by a landslide near Nova Friburgo, Brazil, Jan. 16.
(Felipe Dana / AP)
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Ludmila Moura, 5, sits on a mattress at a shelter for people displaced by landslides in Nova Friburgo, Brazil, Jan. 16. Ludmila was pulled out of her destroyed house by her father, Marcelo Moura, on the first night of heavy rains last Thursday.
(Felipe Dana / AP)
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A dog, "Leao", sits for a second consecutive day, next to the grave of her owner, Cristina Maria Cesario Santana, who died in the week's catastrophic landslides in Brazil, at the cemetery in Teresopolis, near Rio de Janiero, on Jan. 15.
(Vanderlei Almeida / AFP - Getty Images)
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Local residents look at partially buried vehicles in Nova Friburgo, Brazil, Saturday, Jan. 15, after heavy rains hit Rio de Janeiro for several days. More than 500 people have died due to floods.
(Antonio Lecedra / EPA)
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An aerial view of a neighborhood partially destroyed by a landslide caused by heavy rains in Nova Friburgo, Jan. 13. Rescue workers dug desperately for survivors on Thursday and struggled to reach areas cut off by raging floods and landslides that have killed hundreds of people in one of Brazil's worst natural disasters in decades.
(Shana Reis / Government of Rio via Reuters)
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A nurse receives medical attention after fainting in front of the police station in which several bodies are being counted after the heavy rains in Teresópolis, Jan. 13.
(Antonio Lacerda / EPA)
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